phthaloblue

Hi everyone, I'm currently going through the whole pre-op process, and finding myself a little frustrated with how long things are taking. Anyone else experience this kind of frustration? Here's how my timeline has been so far: Last August: Informational meeting September: Meeting with program coordinator/RN, completed blood tests, arterial blood gas test, upper GI, Psych consult October: Met with the surgeon and nutritionist, got family doctor referral and EKG, found out that my insurance requires a 6 month doctor supervised pre-op diet, cardiology clearance, pulmonary clearance, and drug/alcohol testing November-December: Continued seeing nutritionist for 6 mo. diet January: EGD was scheduled, had to be rescheduled for Feb. Cardiology clearance appt two weeks ago. So next month I'll finally have the EGD (it's taken 3 months of waiting) and the pulmonary clearance (2 month waiting list). My 6 month diet will be up in April, after which point I will hopefully be approved. The surgeon has about a month-two month back-up, so I'm realistically looking at June for the surgery. Total, a 10 month process, but even if I didn't need the 6 mo. pre-op diet, it'd still be about 8 months with all the waiting. I'm grateful that my insurance will cover the procedure, even if they have an insane amount of pre-op tests/clearances required (according to my surgeon's office). And I've lived the past 30 years being overweight, so what's another few months...but it's still frustrating! :thumbdown: /end rant

I'm 31, have PCOS, and got my lap-band a year and a half ago with the idea that it would be easier to get pregnant if I lost a significant amount of weight. I stopped birth control over the summer and started charting my temperature last month. After a decade of being seriously anovulatory (and never having gotten my period naturally) I was having perfect 29 day cycles. Then last weekend I took a home pregnancy test and I'M PREGNANT! :thumbup: We thought it would take years and multiple fertility interventions/medications to see those two little pink lines, but it happened in two months. It's been years since I've even taken Metformin, just my daily thyroid pill. I think the recent weight loss (about 60 lbs) must've balanced out my hormones and spiked my fertility. I'm so thankful for this little piece of silicone that enabled what feels like a miracle. Best of luck to you in your journey!

I have 9.25cc in a 10cc band, and I'm close to restriction, I think. Close enough that I won't ask for another fill, since I'm losing okay. Additionally, my doctor has stated that she'd be very hesitant to fill much more, with how full the band already is. The only thing keeping me from feeling like I've really achieved restriction is that I never get the full feeling like others have mentioned. I've never gotten to the point where I felt like I just couldn't eat another bite, or else I'd be sick. So if I don't watch it, I can eat a huge plate of food. (My doctor doesn't think I need a fill, she thinks that I'm one of the rare people who lacks nerve sensitivity in the stomach.) I was hoping that the band would help me "police" myself with portions, but I'm doing most of that myself.

I was banded on July 6, 2009, and so far I'm down 35 pounds with 9ccs in a 10cc band. It hasn't been easy - it took six months to get to restriction and I wasn't really putting in much work on my end so I didn't lose much. I was enjoying being able to eat whatever I wanted without gaining weight for the first time in my life! That also meant losing sight of my weight loss goal. But since the beginning of the new year, I've been much better and am finally losing. I'm sure I'd be doing even better if I got off my butt to exercise more though! It's all a journey... :wink2:

That's awesome! I actually had that exact same revelation a few weeks ago. I only lost a pound or two in the months after I finished my pre-op diet, and was just waiting to achieve restriction. After 7 months, I'm almost at my sweet spot. But it wasn't just that that kept me from losing. For the first time in my life, I was able to eat whatever food I liked and not gain a pound (thanks to my band's forced portion control). It was a liberating feeling, and I spent the fall and holiday season enjoying not thinking, worrying, or obsessing about food and my weight. At my last fill appointment, though, I had to have an honest discussion about why I wasn't losing weight. I needed a fill, but wasn't given one - my doctor wanted me to address the mental and emotional reasons I've been eating first. After that appointment, something clicked - that I need to take the band seriously and LET IT help me lose weight, not just maintain. I want to get down to goal, and I want to start TTC this summer, and those things just won't happen unless I put some work in myself. Since then I've been making much better food choices, following the rules, and even exercising a little. I've lost about six pounds! I'll see my doctor on Monday and hopefully get the little bit of a fill I need to get real restriction. :thumbup:

I'm having a big issue with Breakfast, and hoping someone can help. When I leave for work in the morning (about 7:30 am), I'm not hungry, but by about 9:00 I'm starving. I'm a teacher and my schedule doesn't allow for time to sit and eat an elaborate breakfast, so the best I can do is eat a greek yogurt with berries or granola, or some cheese, or a Protein bar, but by 10:30 I'm hungry again. Real, uncomfortable hunger - not head hunger. Does anyone have ideas for a filling breakfast that can carry me for three or four hours, that I can pack and doesn't need to be heated/cooked (I don't have access to a microwave)? I think I'm at restriction (or close) and I have 8.5cc's in a 10cc band, so there's not much more room. But part of me thinks this shouldn't be a problem. So many of you seem to be fine in the mornings with only a cup of coffee or a Protein shake. How can I eat a whole Protein Bar and be legitimately hungry an hour and a half later? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Right now, it's just in Excel, but he's working on making it into a web application (using Python) It really does help on those mornings when the numbers go up, and I'd normally want to kick the scale across the room. Instead I just step on it really hard. :crying:

I'm in the mushies stage myself, so I'll be watching this thread too! Things I've been enjoying: -Ricotta cheese and marinara/spaghetti sauce microwaved, with dried basil and oregano to season. Like lasagna, but without the noodles -Cottage cheese with fruit spread (all fruit, no sugar added) -Whipped mashed potatoes. I made a batch of homemade ones, but I also enjoyed a little packet of them I got at the supermarket. They were "loaded" flavored, and I think the brand was Idahoan -Lowfat chunky Soups blended up a little. I made a lentil soup that was awesome, and high Fiber which is always good. :thumbup:

I weigh myself every morning. My scale tells me weight and body fat percentage, so I record them every morning. I enter the numbers into a little computer program that my husband wrote. It takes the two numbers and basically uses them as data points to determine the trend of weight loss. So even if my weight goes up for a day or two, it usually still shows an overall loss. I find it to be very encouraging on those days, and since I can just view my weight as a "data point" it takes some of the emotion out of it, for me at least. :thumbup:

I'm sharing all of your excitement! My surgery date is this Monday, July 6!!! Today is my first day on the 5 day pre-op diet my doctor ordered. It's okay so far, but I can't imagine having to do it for two weeks. I am impressed by everyone else who does! 5 MORE DAYS!!!

I am right there with you guys. I got approved for surgery in mid-March, with a surgery date four months later. I've had four months of "Last Supper Syndrome"!!! It's awful. I try to tell myself that it's only hurting me to gain before my surgery, but the overriding thought is "must eat foods I love in case I can never eat them again!" While my doctor's office has never said a thing about gaining weight pre-surgery, part of me is afraid that they'll weigh me next week and say "oops, you've gained weight, we need to reschedule your surgery". And I've been waiting 4 months!!! My pre-op diet is only 5 days, but it's liquids only, so I'll probably drop a few pounds with that. Oh well. :confused:

I am a sparkling, shiny July Jewel, and hoping to shrink about 100 carats! :confused:

Yes! I'm a July Bandster-to-be! I'm having surgery on July 6, and I'm so glad it's less than a month away! It's been such a long time coming. I have my pre-surgery appts with my doctor on June 22, then pre-surgery appt with the hospital on June 24. My doctor only requires a 5 day pre-op diet, but it's really strict so I'm a little nervous. More than anything, though, I'm excited!!!:grouphug:

Sorry you're having to go through all of this, at your own expense (literally). My understanding is that they want you to have the CPAP machine for when you come out of anesthesia. They want to make sure that you're able to breathe properly when you're waking, and that there are no breathing complications post-op. They're not trying to treat your apnea on a long-term basis, it's simply for the day of surgery. My insurance required a pulmonary screening, and the pulmonologist ordered a sleep study. It turned out I had very mild sleep apnea, and so I had to schedule a second study with CPAP. The next week I got the CPAP machine and I have to use it until and immediately after my surgery. It turns out that I'm barely eligible for it (being that my apnea is so mild) but they're doing it just to be safe. I'll also have to stay overnight in the hospital because of the CPAP - I wouldn't if I didn't have it. The whole thing is very frustrating, and I totally get where you're coming from! My only advice is to just get it over with. If it's important enough to your doctor, and you trust your doctor, then jump through the hoops. It sucks, but what can you do? Maybe you'll find that you sleep better, and it was a blessing in disguise. I hope this helps, and good luck on your journey!

Swish, I love this idea! I'm tempted to make a chain for myself once I get closer to the date. (I have about 100 days before then though. That's a lot of paper!) Congratulations on getting your date, Chiffani!!!

I started my journey with an info seminar last August. It took 6 months from that point to get all my pre-op testing and clearances. I got insurance approval a few weeks ago, but I won't be banded until July. (My doctor has a big backlog of patients waiting for surgery, but it's okay with me since I'll be off work for the summer and can recover well) So total it will be about 11 months. I'll be honest, it's been a long road, but I haven't been "weeded out" yet and I am determined to do this. That gives me confidence. Good luck in your own journey!

My doctor's got a long waiting list, and the earliest surgery date he had was in July. I sympathize with your frustration, and there's been a few moments when I've considered changing doctors. Like you, I started the process months ago, and it feels like we've just been waiting forever. It's hard to hear that we need to wait a little more. If I was you, I'd wait it out. There's a good chance that switching doctors wouldn't yield a much earlier date, and all your ducks are in a row for this one. It's lousy, but I'm using this time to get myself even more mentally prepared, maybe even drop a few pounds before surgery. Good luck with everything!

As of 1:37 this afternoon, my insurance is approving me for surgery! It's been quite a long road to get here, but I'm so happy it's working out. My surgery date is set for July 6, which works out great since I'm a teacher and will be on summer break during the recovery process. :w00t: They even approved me before I finished my 6 month diet. I had some records of being on phentermine for 5 months about 4 years ago, plus years of Weight Watchers records, so I guess that sufficed as evidence of attempts at a supervised diet.

My surgeon's pretty popular and it always takes a while to get any kind of appointment in his office. It was a long wait to get a surgery date because a big factor was that initially, my surgeon's office told me that my insurance didn't require a 6 month supervised diet. I started all the tests and appointments, and 2 months later learned otherwise. So the 6 month diet started 2 months after I began the process. Still, it took me a full 5 1/2 months before my surgeon could do the pre-op EGD he requires. So even if the diet wasn't an issue, it wouldn't have been a quick process. The next opening he has for a surgery date is early July, if you can believe that. It's fine with me because of the teaching thing, but it must be extremely frustrating to his other patients. If I could do it over again, I might've picked a different doctor, but I know mine will be fantastic albeit much anticipated. :-)

Congratulations! 10 lbs, you must have been doing something right! :scared2:

Thanks so much! My husband and I went out tonight to Celebrate and it was such fun. Like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I just hope the next 3 1/2 months will go by quickly. I can't wait for July!

I'm curious if anyone here has gone through a doctor-supervised, insurance-required 6 month diet and been denied coverage due to not losing enough weight. I'm asking because I've been doing the 6 month diet for about 4 1/2 months now, and have completed every other requirement my insurance company needs. A really nice employee at the insurance co. mailed me the criteria including fine print regarding each requirement. The fine print for the "6 month doctor supervised diet" mentions ideally losing 5-10% body weight. I see my nutritionist monthly, and we haven't really been focusing on losing weight, just trying to fix some bad eating habits and learn new, better ones. So while I'm proud of myself for maintaining my weight for the first time in my life, there's a chance that it will get me denied. I'm buckling down and trying to lose as much as I can in the next 5 weeks, but what if I can't lose the 5%? (12 lbs for me)

Yep, I'm getting there too! I have a little more than a month left in my 6 month supervised diet. Last week my insurance finally gave me their specific criteria for approving surgery (in writing), so unless something goes terribly wrong, I'll have met all their requirements at that point and should get approved by the end of April, at which point I'll get a surgery date! My surgeon is very popular and it'll probably be a few months of waiting before the actual surgery, but after all the waiting I've done thus far, I think I can handle it!

Count me as another roller coaster victim! I'd always been heavy, but after meeting my (now) husband, I put on another 40 lbs of "happy fat". We went to Cedar Point to ride roller coasters shortly after my weight gain, and walked up to the latest roller coaster. There was an operator at the entrance who stopped me and said, in a loud voice, "Miss, why don't you sit down on this sample chair to see if you'll fit." I was mortified by his comment and the large crowd listening, so I made up a quick lie, saying that I'd already been on the ride and fit just fine. He gave me a doubtful look and let me proceed. In my mind, it hadn't occurred to me that at 250 lbs I might not fit. After waiting in line for 2 hours, we were almost ready to be seated. The operator was loading a car with people, and I noticed him starting to argue with a man who was just a little too big to wear the seat belt. I looked at the man, then looked at myself and realized that I was about the same size as him. Surrounded by hundreds of people waiting, and with nowhere else to go but climb in the next car, I nearly panicked. When it was our turn to load, I pulled on the belt with all my might and barely managed to fasten it. The operator came over to check and I could tell he was about to argue that there wasn't enough slack on the belt, but I gave him a desperate look and he just passed by. Thank goodness. Nevertheless, it ruined the rest of the day, and I haven't been to a theme park since, to my husband's dismay. A positive thing that's come out of this long pre-approval process is, for the first time, I'm starting to tell my husband about a lifetime full of these embarrassing and anxious incidents. He's always been thin, so he hadn't realized what a terrible head-game it is to be obese. He's more thankful now than ever that the band might be a way to end it all.

Hi all, I've got 5 weeks left in my 6 month insurance-approved diet and I just found out 2 bits of information: my insurance pretty much needs me to have a BMI of >40, and they're expecting that I lose 5-10% of my body weight during the 6 month diet. The problem is, my BMI right now is 42.4 and I've been maintaining it for the past 4 months. (My nutritionist hasn't asked me to lose weight, just not gain and try to form better habits) If I lose the recommended 5-10%, that'll put me below a BMI of 40. But if I don't lose that much, they might not approve me anyway. Their criteria for approval is pretty lengthy, and I suspect they don't like to approve easily. Has anyone else experienced something similar? Which is worse, going below a BMI of 40, or not losing as much on the 6 month diet? I'm going to try to lose just the right amount as to stay above BMI=40 but as close to 5% weight loss as possible, but that's counting on no fluctuation the day of weigh-in. Eek.